Garmin Sharp rider Nathan Haas made good on his vow to ride strongly in the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, with the former race winner taking a fine sprint victory at the end of stage one in Ballarat and taking over the race lead from his team-mate, prologue winner Jack Bauer.

“I know that my form’s good now and confidence comes with that,” the 24 year old said after what was his first pro victory with the WorldTour team. “The Tour Down Under was a nice litmus test for this race, which really is to me probably my most favourite race in the world.”

Haas revealed that his intention was to ride for team-mate Steele von Hoff, but the latter realised there was a chance for Haas to take victory himself.

“He was going to take my wheel through that final section. But one of the fantastic things about Steele is that he really thinks about the bigger picture in the sprint.

“He saw the door open for me and he didn’t get on it so he left the gap and then I went.”

The resulting ten second time bonus moved him ahead of Bauer, with the prologue winner now seven second back. Orica GreenEdge rider Will Clarke and Goss are third and fourth, nine seconds behind, with Von Hoff at eleven seconds and Clarke at twelve.

Australian champion and Santos Tour Down Under winner Simon Gerrans (Orica GreenEdge) is now ninth overall, thirteen seconds back, and will hope to make up the lost time in the stages to come.

The 125 kilometre stage began in Geelong and was marked by an early break. Those present were Thomas Hamilton (Jayco Australian U23 National Team), Alberto Bettiol (Cannondale Pro Cycling) and Nathan Elliott (African Wildlife Safaris Cycling). Together the trio built a lead of just under three and a half minutes, with Bettiol netting the intermediate sprint at Anakie.

They continued onto the category one climb of Glenmore Hill, where Hamilton took top points. The gap over the fragmenting peloton was down to two and a half minutes there, and the climb caused a group of fifteen riders to push ahead of the peloton.

Gerrans and four out of the five remaining Orcia GreenEdge riders were part of the group, as were the Garmin-Sharp trio of Haas, race leader Bauer and Von Hoff.

This group hauled back the three leaders on the descent and together the eighteen raced onwards. However despite opening a 32 second gap, there was a regrouping of sorts over the category four Mount Egerton, where Haas beat Simon Clarke and Drapac’s Lachlan Norris.

This group then hurtled on towards the finish, where Haas burst clear and picked up an important win. He said that he was committed to trying to take the jersey all the way to the finish of the race, which will end with the summit finish of Arthur’s Seat.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence at the moment that I can do it, and I’ve got even more confidence that the team’s going to give me the opportunity to keep doing it,” he said. “We’re here to win this race and it really suits us to the ground.”